- UK: Farage triggers by-election amid donations probe
Source: Politico
“Nigel Farage resigned as an MP Tuesday to trigger a by-election amid intense scrutiny of his financial arrangements. … Farage is being investigated by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg over whether he broke House of Commons rules by failing to declare a £5 million donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Farage has repeatedly said he was under no obligation to declare the gift because he received it before he was elected as Clacton MP. He said Tuesday he is also being investigated over fresh accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations from crypto entrepreneur George Cottrell.” (07/07/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-triggers-by-election-amid-donations-probe
- France: Le Pen says she will run for president after court shortens ban on holding office
Source: Reuters
“French far-right leader Marine Le Pen announced that she will run for president in 2027. Le Pen made the announcement during a prime-time TV interview, hours after an appeals court shortened her ban on holding public office. Her presidential hopes had been in limbo since March 2025, when she received the five-year ban for using money from the European Parliament to pay wages for staff at her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party in France. The appeals court in Paris upheld her conviction but significantly shortened the ban, so that in effect it is already over. However, the court said she would need to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year. Le Pen said she would appeal against the ruling to France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation. That would suspend her sentence and the order to wear the tag until the court delivers its own decision, allowing her to campaign freely, she said.” (07/07/26)
- Let’s Leave the Strait of Hormuz Alone
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul“[P]erhaps the most destructive ‘own-goal’ of the US attack is the Iranian decision to establish control over the Strait of Hormuz. Even in the US/Israeli attacks of last June, the Strait was kept open by Iran. It is a vital trade route and in everyone’s best interest to keep open for business. The February attack and Iran’s strong regional response led the country to embrace what some have called a de facto nuclear weapon: control of the Strait. … It is in the best interest of the United States to abandon claims on Hormuz – which is thousands of miles away – and live with the consequences of Trump’s mistake.” (07/07/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2026/07/06/lets-leave-the-strait-of-hormuz-alone
- Politics is Just Another Word for No Freedom Left to Choose
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“Big business versus big government is the ultimate false dichotomy of our time. Championing the former won’t break the cycle that allows both to marginalize the scope of (and solutions emerging from) voluntary cooperation, decentralized association, and individual freedom.” (07/07/26)
- Billionaire Welfare Queens and Their Sycophants
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem“Elon Musk has taken in at least $38 billion in subsidies and federal contracts, not counting the $1.5 billion EV subsidy Tesla took advantage of from President Barack Obama’s 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA gave a $7,500 per vehicle subsidy to electric vehicle purchases. In total, that $39.5 billion in subsidies amounts to $470 for every one of the 84.2 million American families. That means the average family is $470 poorer because of Elon Musk. Billionaire and trillionaire sycophants counter that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and the other super-wealthy provide services to the American government, that these services are ‘worth it,’ and that if they hadn’t provided the services or taken the subsidies someone else would have. … [That] sounds a lot like an argument a leftist greenie and a loyalist of the military-industrial complex would make, respectively.” (07/07/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/billionaire-welfare-queens-and-their-sycophants
- People Used to Control Machines. They Don’t Anymore
Source: Wired
by Ian Bogost“If gratification is so easy, why don’t you feel more gratified already? Because it’s gotten harder. It’s still easy to experience individual feats of gratification when you find them (or they find you). But the ordinary circumstances that once produced so much gratification have gradually receded. Unseen choices in design, business, and social life have made it harder for you to engage directly with the sensory world. This problem snuck up on me, and probably on you as well. Slowly, over time, the world started withdrawing from us. Automation took over ordinary tasks. Things that used to have buttons suddenly did not. Basic activities got taken over by computers. I was slow to notice it happening, too. But once I did, I saw it everywhere and every day.” (07/07/26)
- Democracy has a participation problem. AI may help solve it.
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Education
by Chloe Ratner“While discussions about AI often focus on misinformation and transparency, these concerns miss the bigger picture. The question is no longer whether AI should shape democratic processes — it already does — but how it can be channeled to promote free speech and democracy with imperfect tools. Generative AI has become a hot debate topic in the world of First Amendment rights and free speech. Questions about how to classify AI-generated content, what protections it does or does not deserve, and who bears liability for its outputs represent genuine legal and ethical frontiers. But amid these legal and ethical debates, a fundamental capability of AI gets lost in the noise: its ability to sort, organize, and amplify human speech rather than replace it.” (07/08/25)
https://www.fire.org/news/democracy-has-participation-problem-ai-may-help-solve-it
- Mamdani’s Embittered Fourth of July Rant to America
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson“Zohran Mamdani, New York’s self-described socialist mayor, could not resist using the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration to trash the very country that he and his parents voluntarily sought out. As is his custom, Mamdani speaks in stereotypes and generalities, offering few if any examples, all laced with his accustomed unctuous hypocrisy. … At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Thus spoke the pampered rich kid from Uganda, who immigrated to America with his now-endowed professor father and elite filmmaker mother, the latter reportedly supported by millions of dollars in grants from the Qatari royal autocracy.” (07/07/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/07/mamdanis-embittered-fourth-of-july-rant-to-america/
- Rewarding Good Governance: How Foot-Voters Benefit Society
Source: The Daily Economy
by Emile Phaneuf III“Governance improves when people and businesses are free to leave high-tax, low-value jurisdictions. Competition can improve public policy just as it improves products and services.” (07/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/rewarding-good-governance-how-foot-voters-benefit-society/
- Return-to-office mandates are a pay cut in disguise
Source: The Hill
by Gleb Tsipursky“Return-to-office is a compensation decision that hits wallets first and morale soon after. If leaders want people in seats, the fair move is simple: cover the costs or raise the pay. When workers go to the office, they pay to work. The typical in-office day now runs roughly $15 for the commute, $9 for parking, $13 for breakfast or coffee, and $18 for lunch, all detailed in the 2025 Owl Labs report.” [editor’s note: While I agree that it’s a pay cut, if you’re spending $13 for breakfast/coffee and $18 for lunch on a daily basis, I suggest Googling terms like “lunch box” and “insulated mug” – TLK] (07/07/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/5955528-office-commute-costs-employees/
- Today In Dystopia
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Today in dystopia Americans are becoming increasingly outraged by the ubiquity of Flock’s AI-assisted surveillance cameras throughout US cities. Flock officers getting caught in lies and viral video footage of police abusing their access to the technology have contributed to the outcry, with public vandalism of the cameras taking place with increasing frequency in public spaces. Today in dystopia the German government is moving to ban workers from calling in sick by phone in order to boost the economy by reducing the amount of sick leave being taken by corporate employees. New regulations would require a certified in-person doctor’s visit on the very first day of sick leave. They’re just coming right out and saying that the public exists to serve the corporations now. Today in dystopia we’re starting to see videos of quadrupedal robots firing guns with accuracy and minimal recoil.” (07/07/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/07/today-in-dystopia/
- Gracearchy with Jim Babka, 07/07/26
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Does Tucker Carlson Understand the Rigged Two Party System?” (07/07/26)
- Michael Boldin on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Michael Boldin on How the American Revolution Has Been Betrayed.” (07/07/26)